Before leaving Motorcycle Sport magazine to
become a freelance tester of high-speed motor cycles, David Minton had already
acquired a certain reputation for his way with a bike. He would take some proud
scion of a pedigree line — usually British, usually a vertical twin — ride it in
his inimitable fashion, and very soon wreck it.

Not always totally: sometimes the damage would be
nothing more than a fractured mudguard, seat fixing or headlamp support. But
often a valve would fall in, a gasket would blow, a pushrod bend. He believed in
revs: and British bikes of the 1960s, designwise already a little long in the
tooth, were not up to that sort of life.

When he was reduced to a Honda, having disposed
of all available 500s, it was expected that he would be reporting back, probably
almost concurrently with his departure, with grave news.

He was riding the 175 Honda of 1967, which made
extensive use of pressed steel for the box spine of the frame and other cycle
parts, including even the rear pivoted fork. Where he had been accustomed to
fault the expensive tubular frame of high-performance British machines, he was
happy to report that the Honda layout was pleasingly rigid. Instead of waiting
for cracks to appear (as invariably happened with the all-metal mudguards of
Triumph or BSA, Norton or Matchless), he could only marvel at the durability of
the plastic guards fitted to the 175.

Vibration, he said of the 180° crankshaft engine,
was 'non-existent except for a couple of periods of "humming" through wind; on
his return, he was reduced to the handlebar'. Praise indeed. about 70mph).

He informed readers that the 'little claimed to
be a sports bike, machine cruised flat out most of the time without faltering',
and then, in a revealing aside, mused on the possibility of Honda achieving
similar results should they turn their hand to a pushrod-operated vertical twin
with a 360° crankshaft. A 100-mile journey from London to Norwich was covered at
a steady 75 to 80mph (with the wind; on his return, he was reduced to about
70mph). This on a 175 that was not claimed to be a sports bike.